Ashes 2015: Jimmy Anderson hints he might tone down the sledging

Jimmy Anderson has hinted he is ready to put his sledging days behind him less than a fortnight before the Ashes.

Recent series between England and Australia have been particularly ill-tempered and Anderson, England’s leading wicket-taker in Tests, is usually one of the players who antagonises the opposition.

Anderson’s aggressive manner has helped bring him 403 wickets in this form of the game, more than any other England bowler.

Yet as he prepares for what might be his last Ashes campaign, the 32-year-old suggested he was ready to turn down the volume.

“If there is needle, it’s something I thought I thrived on or thought I needed in the past,” Anderson admitted.

“But having played in the last few months it’s important we get the balance right.

“You have to play the game in the right spirit but also with that competitive edge of trying to win a game of cricket for your country.

“Australia are a very positive-minded team. They attack when they possibly can and we’re going to fight fire with fire there.

“Hopefully we can do that right from the off, take a positive step and get on the front foot straightaway.”

Trevor Bayliss was due to arrive in London today to begin work formally as England coach.

The Australian will join a 14-man squad for a pre-Ashes training camp in Spain from Saturday until Tuesday as he seeks to gain a better understanding of the players he will be assisting.

Bayliss had a significant influence on the composition of the one-day and Twenty20 squads for the recent matches against New Zealand. He was keen, for example, to have Adil Rashid in the party, although the Yorkshire leg-spinner was not named in the party for Spain.

Bayliss will link up again with Paul Farbrace, who becomes his No2, after the latter’s successful spell as interim coach. The pair know each other well after working together with Sri Lanka during Bayliss’s four‑year spell there.

Captain Alastair Cook has been in contact with Bayliss but most of the other players have not. “I’ve not spoken to him yet,” Anderson said. “The purpose of this camp is to make sure we don’t go into the Ashes without having met him.

“He gets here pretty soon and we’re all looking forward to meeting Trevor. “Hopefully, we can talk about how we’re going to win back those Ashes.”

Ten years ago, England regained the urn after an 18-year drought in one of the greatest Test series of them all.

While it would be unrealistic to expect this summer’s action to match the 2005 battle, New Zealand’s tour has helped revive England.

Their 3-2 Royal London series win over the Kiwis featured some of the best international 50-over matches seen in this country for some time.

Test cricket is a different matter but Anderson still hopes that England can carry some of their one-day enthusiasm into the Ashes, which begin in Cardiff on July 8.

He added on Sky Sports News: “I watched all the one-day games and it was great to see the grounds sold out.

The Ashes: How Australia are shaping up

The Ashes: How Australia are shaping up

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Batting line-up

Steve Smith is ranked the world’s best Test batsman, David Warner had the upper hand on England in the last Ashes series and captain Michael Clarke has enjoyed success around the world.
Yet Smith has played only five Tests in this country — none of them batting at No3 — while Warner averages only 23 here and Clarke has never returned home with the Ashes despite three attempts. Chris Rogers and Adam Voges have plenty of experience of first-class cricket here but neither is the kind of explosive player to worry England’s bowling attack. Shane Watson remains an enigma — despite an impressive Test average of 43.9 here, he has only one hundred.

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Age of squad

At his first press conference of the tour, Clarke had to fend off questions about his former team-mate Jason Gillespie’s assessment of Australia’s touring party. Yorkshire coach Gillespie, a four-times Ashes winner, described Clarke’s squad as “Dad’s Army”. The average age is 30.6 yet despite that experience, not one player in it has tasted Ashes success in England. Will they, as Gillespie wonders, wilt if England can somehow manage to put them under pressure? Will the wounds inflicted in the past open again? Clarke gave the criticism short shrift — “Jason is entitled to his opinion. Join the queue” — but his decision to take so many older players is a gamble.

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Ryan Harris

Harris is a superb new-ball bowler who was one of the few successes of Australia’s tour here two years ago, claiming 24 wickets in four Tests at an average of 19.6. If he can repeat that form, England have a very tough series ahead but there are doubts about Harris, despite the tourists’ optimism. He had serious knee surgery last year and it remains to be seen whether his body can tolerate five Tests in less than seven weeks. If Harris is not fit, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson have the talent to cause plenty of problems but none of them has been successful in England. Harris looked in good shape as Australia practised at the weekend but the challenge of an Ashes series is another matter.

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David Warner

Which Warner will turn up? The aggressive character who seeks to antagonise the opposition throughout a Test? Or the quieter man who said recently that he no longer wished to be the “instigator” of slanging matches? In a recent interview, Warner hinted that he had been asked to wind up opponents in the past, which Clarke denied. Warner’s demeanour on the recent tour of West Indies was also far more passive than usual. If he is undergoing some kind of identity crisis, England hope that it will make his batting less effective. Yet it is hard to imagine Warner — who punched Joe Root in a Birmingham bar on the last tour — taking a back seat. If there is an Englishman to be sledged, expect Warner to do so with his usual alacrity.

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“The buzz about English cricket is great at the moment and hopefully it will transfer into the next series.

“The positive feeling isn’t just going through the team at the moment but the whole public and the people watching.”